Philip Bygrave officiating at the Dairibord Schools Rugby Festival 2017 lauded the event as exciting although it was not for competition.
Philip Bygrave played rugby for 18 years and is currently coaching junior teams in Bury besides refereeing; Manchester .The Zimbabwe Referees Society invited him with Elliot Lewis through Manchester District Rugby Referees Society in which they are members.
He said that the rugby play in Britain is different from that in Zimbabwe “The rugby game here in Zimbabwe is naturally quicker than in Britain because the ground here is naturally harder than in Britain where rugby is a winter sport. From September up to May when our schools season finish the temperatures will be below 10 t0 15 degrees Celsius and raining”, he said. He added that because the ground will be softer in Britain making it difficult to play rugby.
“However, there are more tactics in the English game than here where they just run with the ball “, he added.”We are going to invite some referees here to come and spent sometime in England in order to strengthen our commitment”, he revealed.
H e commended the festival as a fantastic event.” I really enjoyed every day I had been here. The type of rugby is very quick, strong and well drilled. The players had love of the game as some Under 16s played with T- Shirts of different colors whilst some were barefooted”, he said.
Although it is a festival not a tournament its competiveness could not be ignored said Philip Bygrave.
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